-Tell me the “This week on WWE Smackdown” guy didn’t just hype a replay of The Rock’s concert from Monday! These highlight packages are getting out of hand!

ALBERTO DEL RIO’S FIESTA CELEBRATION

The ring was a stereotyper’s dream! Mariachi bands, sombreros, piñatas, and Mexican flags galore! They even did the Mexican hat dance! Alberto Del Rio got a decent reaction from the crowd, but the fiesta didn’t last long when Dolph Ziggler and crew interrupted. Dolph’s briefcase looked a little worse for the wear, and Del Rio came off like a fighting champion who wasn’t afraid of the briefcase and what it does.

Big Show also came out and stared down Del Rio until Sheamus came out to even the odds. Sheamus was back to his normal “I don’t care, I joke about everything self.” Del Rio and Sheamus did a decent enough job of patching things up after their feud from the summer and moving on. I’m glad they didn’t ignore the fact that they feuded. Booker eventually came out and did his best Teddy Long impression by making a tag match for later with, coincidentally enough, the wrestlers who were currently in the ring! Pretty standard opener to Friday Night Smackdown. Booker then kicked the heels out of the ring so the fiesta could continue to end the segment. I would have liked to see Big Show pop a few balloons on his way out, as that would have been uber heelish!

1 - U.S. champion ANTONIO CESARO vs. KOFI KINGSTON – non-title match

No entrance for Cesaro. He was magically in the ring when Smackdown came back! I’m liking the little touches to Cesaro’s character/gimmick. He waves the American flag in an over-the-top sarcastic manner and has the trunks with the American flag on them to match! Little things like this help put a guy's character together. It also took 23:00 into the show for someone to mention that tonight is the 700th episode of Smackdown.

Cesaro made short work of Kofi, as he caught him in mid-air and put him down with The Neutralizer. Kofi is on one downward spiral to start the year. Six-to-eight weeks ago, I thought Kofi was on pace to have an amazing 2013. Today, I think he needs to get off TV for a little bit to give his face a rest.

-Miz buried Primo and Epico by not being able to tell them apart and pointing out that neither has spoken on TV in three years. Miz will face one of them later tonight.

2 - GREAT KHALI vs. TENSAI

No Hornswoggle, as he is selling the beat down from Dolph Ziggler and Big E. Langston from last week. Josh Mathews calls this match “Megatron vs. Voltron,” and JBL has no idea what he is talking about. Another short match where Khali’s opponent had to create the movement and bump around for the big guy. Tensai shouldn’t be the one bumping around and doing all the movement. I just don’t understand why Khali is on TV every week and younger more talented wrestlers watch on the sidelines ”paying their dues.”

-Backstage segment with Team Hell No and Randy Orton. Orton looked so bored and ready to fall asleep during the segment. Every week Randy looks less and less inspired to be on TV.

No entrances for the heels in this match. Good match between these six men. Hell No and the Scholars have good chemistry, as they can put on a decent match. Kane played face in peril through most of the match, then after a spot where one guy threw another over the top rope, they got dumped by another guy, and Orton pinned Sandow. Afterwards, the winners shared a group hug.

After a series of high-profile losses and beat downs from The Shield, Orton got to put a win in his column. To me, this group hug thing solidifies to me that Orton being turned heel has been shelved, at least for this week. This would have been a perfect opportunity to RKO and punt his way to heel heat, but it wasn’t meant to be!

-Rock concert recap is shown. Josh Mathews claimed that the entire WWE Universe and those in attendance are still buzzing over The Rock’s performance. Punk and Rock ended up brawling around ringside to end the recap.

4 - THE MIZ vs. PRIMO

The match started off with both guys doing their best Ric Flair impressions. The Miz gave Primo a lot of offense during the match. Miz could squash guys like Heath Slater and Primo, but lately he has been giving them ten-minute matches where he lets the other guy shine. Overall, Miz has been doing some of his best in-ring work the last couple of months. Miz ended up picking up the win by submission after putting Primo in the figure-four leglock.

-Layla hinted at a heel turn by not handing Kaitlyn her title back. Why does Layla get to turn, but Orton doesn’t? Life is so unfair!

5 - Divas champion KAITLYN vs. AKSANA – non-title match

I was expecting a one-sided squash match, but Aksana looked credible during the match and almost put Kaitlyn away on a few occasions. Kaitlyn ended up pulling out a win out of nowhere by delivering a spear.

-A Mick Foley retrospective is shown. They are not calling him the head or top of the 2013 Hall of Fame class, which has me thinking that DX might be the top of the class.

-Another shaky cam promo from The Shield. They proudly said they interrupted Foley’s Hall of Fame celebration. They had solid heel reasoning for breaking up the celebration and also delivered a very good promo where they vowed to target Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Ryback again in the near future.

New red scarf for Del Rio, as he told Josh that it represents the Spanish blood running through his veins. They are all in the him as a top Latino babyface! The ref kicked Langston out of the arena early after he had some choice words for Sheamus. A.J. was also kicked out of the arena! Usual main event tag team match from these men. Sheamus and Del Rio looked pretty strong coming out of the match, especially Del Rio. Big Show ended up getting water thrown on him by Del Rio – shades of Doink! Del Rio and Sheamus won by count-out after Big Show walked away from the match after being doused.

-The fiesta continued as Smackdown went off the air.

Thank you for reading, make sure to check out my reviews of Main Event each and every week, also follow me on Twitter @MJCupach where I tweet live during Raw and WWE PPVs. I will be a guest on the FTWpodcast next Saturday, January 26 for their Royal Rumble preview show. Go to ftwpodcast.com or ftwlive.com to listen live to the show!

He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)

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